Palestinian fighters kill Israeli soldier
Palestinian resistance fighters have killed an Israeli soldier in an ambush near the West Bank town of Jenin.
The fighters apparently opened fire from a moving car before fleeing the scene. The shooting was claimed by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Afterwards, Israeli troops stormed the nearby town of Araba and began a campaign of raids and arrests.
Earlier, Israeli occupation troops shot dead two Palestinians, east of the town of Bait Hanun in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian security sources said they had been informed by Israeli authorities that two armed men had been killed in a confrontation.
Student injured
Israeli troops backed by tanks were firing into the Bait Hanun area, the Palestinian sources said.
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Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed |
An Israeli military spokesman said that soldiers opened fire on two Palestinians as they crawled towards Gaza’s border fence with the apparent aim of planting a bomb.
Aljazeera has also learned that a female Palestinian student is in critical condition after being shot in the head at a military checkpoint near Khan Yunus.
Huwaida Abu Mustafa was in a taxi on her way to university when Israeli soldiers opened fire, injuring her.
Jenin sit-in
In Jenin, a group of armed al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members have forced the closure of the local offices of the Palestinian parliament and the finance ministry to protest against a failure to compensate relatives of victims of the conflict with Israel.
The head of the resistance group in Jenin, Zakaria al-Zubaidi, told Aljazeera the action was a result of the Palestinian Authority’s policies towards the families of killed resistance fighters.
“The closure will continue until the legislative council passes a law ensuring protection for families of martyrs,” said al-Zubaidi, whose group is an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Yasir Arafat’s Fatah movement.
Al-Zubaidi was also quoted as saying: “We have been appealing to the PLC (parliament) for the last eight months to pass a bill which would protect the families of martyrs.
“These offices will remain closed until the law is adopted.”